MEPX
Chapter 6 of 10All chapters
  1. 1What punctuation is for
  2. 2Commas
  3. 3Colons and semicolons
  4. 4Apostrophes
  5. 5Dashes, hyphens and brackets
  6. 6Quotation marks
  7. 7Sentence endings
  8. 8Lists and bullets
  9. 9Numbers, dates and abbreviations
  10. 10Checking punctuation

Chapter 6 of 10

Quotation marks

Reporting words.

Basic use

Quotation marks enclose spoken or quoted words and titles of short works. British style typically uses single marks, American double, with the other for a quote inside a quote.

  • Introduce a quotation with a comma or a colon depending on structure.
  • Ellipsis shows omitted words; square brackets show your own insertions.

Punctuation placement

American style puts commas and full stops inside the marks. British style puts them outside unless they belong to the quoted material. Both are consistent within their own system.